Sustainability Science: Interactions Between Human and Environmental Systems

Catalog description

Addresses core ideas in sustainability science--an emerging field of research dealing with the interactions between human and environmental systems. The problem that motivates the course is the challenge of sustainability: improving the well-being of present and future generations in ways that conserve the planet's life support systems over the long term. Students critically discuss a set of presentations and papers covering the field in a systematic way, drawing on and integrating contemporary research from earth systems science, resource economics, institutional analysis, ecology, geography, development studies, health sciences, engineering, and other disciplines. Covers from the theory of sustainability to its multiple applications in the field and explores the impacts of different value systems on both theory and applications.